Portland State University PDXScholar University Honors Theses University Honors College 6-12-2019 Informing Subterranean Transit Station Design from Existing and Future Station Typologies; an Informative Exploration of how to Develop Underground Station Design for MAX Light Rail Antonio P. Ramos-Crosier Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/honorstheses Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Ramos-Crosier, Antonio P., "Informing Subterranean Transit Station Design from Existing and Future Station Typologies; an Informative Exploration of how to Develop Underground Station Design for MAX Light Rail" (2019). University Honors Theses. Paper 797. https://doi.org/10.15760/honors.815 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in University Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Informing Subterranean Transit Station Design from Existing and Future Station Typologies; an Informative Exploration of how to Develop Underground Station Design for MAX Light Rail Image 1: MAX Red line crossing the Steel Bridge, which is a key piece of infrastructure that the regional connector aims to avoid with the implementation of a new tunnel. Image taken by Antonio Crosier. By: Antonio Ramos-Crosier Advisor: Jeff Schnabel 1 MAX Regional Connector Ramos-Crosier Research Question: In anticipation of TriMet and the City of Portland’s vision to create the subterranean tunnel for MAX light trail beneath downtown, which design considerations must be made in order to ensure that MAX light rail will continue to promote downtown walkability, passenger comfort, and economic vitality? Background: The City of Portland’s Enhanced Transit Corridor Plan, which aims at improving TriMet’s overall public transit speed and system efficiency, has identified a proposal to create a subterranean transitway for MAX light rail from the Lloyd District, to Goose Hollow as a way to speed trains through downtown Portland. The objective of this project, which is set to be open as soon as 2035, is intended to create more reliable train service that will bypass a seismically deficient steel bridge crossing. It is also intended as a bypass for the traffic ridden streets in Portland’s city center. The new East-West tunnel has been poised as the solution for many of these conflicts. Although vaguely labeled as the Regional Connector Transit Tunnel, the project will at the very ​ ​ least, include tunneled access for MAX light rail under downtown Portland along a yet to be determined route. Even though TriMet does have one existing underground station located at Washington Park, this station primarily serves people who are visiting the parks tourist attractions instead of everyday commuters. This means that TriMet has yet to design an underground stations for its core commuter types. TriMet does have an existing design criteria for both its bus and railway design, however these design criteria serve the systems 96 surface running stations (plus the aforementioned Washington Park station), and will apply to the future 13 surface 2 MAX Regional Connector Ramos-Crosier running stations that will be built for the Southwest Corridor Light Rail Project. The planning for the Regional Connector tunnel has only advanced through the “black-lined” ​ ​ route planning that has been conducted by the agency in recent months, “black lining” refers to the conceptual rail alignments that the agency has proposed. Image 2: Potential light rail alignments for the regional connector tunnel, and their potential station locations. Content provided by TriMet. Existing Light Rail Station Conditions: TriMet operates a rail system that is comprised of 97 stations over 5 light-rail lines that provide connections to various centers around the region. Each of these lines either crosses through or terminates in downtown Portland, where each line snakes through the urban core of city through right-of-ways in city streets. The downtown portion of the system is fully integrated into the urban layout of the city streets, as platforms blend into city sidewalks and urban park spaces. This trolley like transit 3 MAX Regional Connector Ramos-Crosier approach for the MAX system has contributed to several success’ in the continued revitalization of the city center, as the stations accessible fronts help to create a more active streetscape. Image 3: A MAX station in Northwest Portland, which highlights the blurring of station and public right of ways. Image source, OregonLive. The existing station typology in Portland’s city center is comprised of side running platforms that exist at the edge of enlarged sidewalks. The platforms are approximately 200 feet long, which is the typical length of a city block. This allows for TriMet to operate a maximum of two-combined light rail cars at any given time across its entire system. Station amenities include seating, covered waiting canopies, ticketing information and machines, wayfinding information, and station signage. A substantial portion of this content has been modularized and repeated in stations across the system and City Center. 4 MAX Regional Connector Ramos-Crosier Image 4: Not to scale diagram of the light rail platforms relationship to the urban layout of the streetscape. Diagram produced by Antonio Crosier. In all, TriMet has played a key role in the methods in which urban design has progressed the impact of methodical inclusive designs that extend beyond the use of its transit riders Challenges for Subterranean Stations in Portland: Given light rail’s important impact on the streetscape of Portland’s city center, it is difficult to imagine that a substantial if not the entirety of the system will be encased under the streets of the city. The first impact that will be noticeable from the move into an underground system will be the absence of high capacity stations that will directly sit adjacent to active storefronts and park spaces. As trains shift into underground spaces, the public's ability to visualize light rail as a viable transportation method will also be 5 MAX Regional Connector Ramos-Crosier downplayed as the trains themselves will no longer be visibly present along city streets. Other transit alternatives such as surface running streetcars and buses will still be running in the surface street however. An additional challenge for subterraneas stations will be the new design typologies that will have to grow out of the new underground station design. Now, the traditional methods of station amenities and the stations direct influence on its relationship from platform to street level will result in contrasting methods of design that TriMet has not faced before. Which are a detachment from the streetscape, and the implementation of more controlled station environments that would require more significant isolation from the urban design of the city streets. Image 5: A MAX light rail vehicle at the Pioneer Square Station during the opening of the Eastside MAX in 1986. This graphic is significant in that it shows how light rail ignated a new relationship with the urban design of the city, as the platforms began to provide more energy to a growing city center. Image source, TriMet. 6 MAX Regional Connector Ramos-Crosier Modern Subway Design precedents: Seattle (Sound Transit): The Seattle region several transit agencies that operates rail transit in the region, the two most utilized agencies being King County Metro, which operates two surface running streetcar lines; and Sound Transit which runs light rail and commuter rail lines within the greater Seattle metropolitan area. For this observation, I will be dissecting the Link Light Rail system which operates in Seattle. This section will cover Existing, under construction, and planned underground light rail platforms that connect with the city of Seattle. These will include; the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, the University Link Extension, the Northgate Extension, and the Eastlink extension designs. Image 6: an existing (solid), and planned or under construction (dashed) map of the Sound Transit Link Light Rail system that I observed for this section of the study. The stations I have chosen are circled with dashed lines. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel: ​ This is a 1.3 mile tunnel comprised of 4 subterranean stations. The tunnel was opened in 1990 and was only serviced by buses until the tunnel had proper light rail tracks 7 MAX Regional Connector Ramos-Crosier installed for link light rail central link line in 2009. As of 2019, the subterranean stations are now only served by light rail, due to bus stops being moved to surface streets. These were the first series of underground stations that were built in the city of Seattle, however it is unique that the stations were first built for bus operations under the presumption that light rail would eventually utilize these tunnels, only for bus operations to cease usage in the tunnel after Sound Transit and King County Metro swapped ownership of the tunnels in 2019. The station design for all four of these stations follows common design elements which contain small variations in program placement in respect to the surrounding context of the station portal area. The station entry for this section of light rail is comprised of roughly 10-15 feet wide gaps that have the station name placed above it. These lead into sharp turns that direct passengers down a series of escalators and stairs that lead into the ticketing hall which is underground. The ticketing hall for these stations has scattered information displays and ticketing machines that are placed along the edges of various spacious and open level that lead to various other station entry points, which lead to access points that lead down to the platforms themselves. The stations have elements that are not in line with Sound Transit’s current design practices for stations built and planned after the introduction of light rail into the Seattle Transit Tunnel.